Rider University strikes three-year deal with professors, staff

Martin Griff / The Times of TrentonRider Universityâs new academic building in Lawrence Township is seen in this September 13, 2011 file photo

Rider University faculty and members of the administration have settled on a three-year labor agreement that calls for salary increases each year.

All union members will get a 1.95 percent salary increase the first year of the contract, between 2 and 3 percent the second year, and between 1 and 3.5 percent the third year.

“We are pleased that final settlement of a new three-year labor agreement has been reached and fully ratified by both parties,” said Daniel Higgins, Rider spokesman.
The union ratified the agreement Nov. 1, and the university ratified it two days later, Higgins said.

“The negotiations spanned a broad range of topics that, in addition to compensation and benefits, included issues related to governance, bargaining unit development, facilities and general working conditions,” Higgins said. The new agreement also contains changes to university-provided benefits.

Roberta Clipper, president of Rider’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), said the contract was “the best compromise that could happen.”
She said there was some relief for AAUP members who “pay a great deal of money” for spouses and children who are covered under their health care insurance. They will now pay less, Clipper said.
“That was a big thing we feel we accomplished. We worked hard at that,” said Clipper, an English professor at Rider for 27 years.

Last month Jeffrey Halpern, a sociology professor and the chief negotiator for the AAUP’s Rider chapter, told The Times that faculty were ready to strike if a contract agreement could not be reached. The union’s previous four-year contract expired in July.
The union represents about 700 full- and part-time professors, librarians, coaches, athletic trainers and reading clinicians on both the Lawrenceville campus and the Westminster Choir College in Princeton Borough.